


To Take It Slowly

by Estirose



Category: Zero | Fatal Frame
Genre: F/M, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 11:53:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6752860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirie knows that when you have eternity, you take things slowly. Even love. (Post Fatal Frame I)</p>
<p>Written for fic_promptly on DW.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Take It Slowly

They get to know each other slowly, because they have eternity.

Kirie is far too aware of what she's done and all the deaths she caused when the Malice infected her, and she knows she will pay her repentance for eternity. The fact that Mafuyu has chosen to remain with her is nothing less than a gift, a bright spot in her life. He died just for her, and she'll never forget that.

They are not lovers yet, just good friends, but Kirie is content to let their relationship develop over time. Mafuyu smiles for her when she needs him to, and that's all that she can ask of him. His death means that he cannot leave the grounds of the mansion at best, and this chamber at worst, and he's unwilling to explore long enough for either of them to find out. Eventually, she thinks, he'll be willing to find out, but she's not pressing him.

She's afraid to lose him, this person who is a familiar stranger to her. She and the Malice touched his mind while she was still possessed, but she didn't spend much time doing anything other than telling him where to go and what to do. She doesn't want to upset him or hurt him; eternity is too long for that.

The gate slams into her and she gasps, forgetting her thoughts. Mafuyu is by her side instantly, her hand in his, brow furrowed in concern.

Kirie loves him for that.

"Are you all right?" he asks, as if he could cure the pain, shut the gate. She thinks of how lucky Miku was to have him as a brother, and hangs her head at the fact that, even if it was his choice, she took Miku's brother from her.

It's another guilt to be borne, and she almost wishes Miku would come back and die and be with them so that she could look at Mafuyu with something other than trepidation. "I'll be fine."

His hand is not warm in hers; it is simply there. But he's willing to touch her, to be in contact with her, far more than anybody other than her servant had in her life. "Are you sure?" he asks.

She knows that she'll be lying if she says yes. She knows that he knows that too. "I'll be repenting for what I did for a very long time, Mafuyu."

"It wasn't you," he says fervently, and she wishes she could believe it. But then again, maybe that's something to take slowly too, forgiving herself.

At least she has the time. Someday she'll ask him about his past, how he came there, what connection he has to the place other than her. But that is for when she can look him in the eyes without regret, be there for him as he is for her. See him as less the love she had before she died, and more the person who she kidnapped by mistake because of someone long dead.

Forever is maybe a blessing, but she knows that in order to survive, they have to go slowly.


End file.
